Far less dismay'd, Anchises' wand'ring son FALCONER. Non hic Centauros, non Gorgonas, Harpyiasque VOL. I. MARTIAL. LONDON: Printed by Strahan and Spottiswoode, Printers-Street; FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. HOURS OF HESITATION. CHAPTER I. (4 "They shall be married to-morrow; and I will bid the Duke to the nuptials. But, oh! how bitter a thing it is, to look into happiness through another man's eyes: by so much the more shall I to morrow, be at the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I shall think my brother happy, in having what he wished for." SHAKSPEARE. WHEN the mind's free, the body's delicate," says Shakspeare. Every one has observed that minor considerations are sunk and lost in the vortex of any great event: it was the operation of this sentiment, that induced Philippa Egerton, regardless of the chill air of an VOL. I. B autumnal morning, that blew briskly across her face, to sit, wrapt in profound reverie, at the open casement of her apartment. She was on the point of consummating that event, which forms the most important epoch in the life of woman ; — of approaching that bourne, whence return is impossible; of binding herself in those fetters, which, though silken, are so strong, that they can be loosened by nothing but the commission of crimes, from which the eye turns with loathing and horror; or by death, from the contemplation of which, the mind of the young, the gay, and the thoughtless, shrinks aghast! In provincial towns and their immediate neighbourhood, an heiress, from the period of her début on the great theatre of life, is an object of important interest. It is a truism universally perceived, generally acknowledged, and frequently acted upon, that such females of this class, as are not supposed to possess great talents, 14 |